Dreamquake (Dreamhunter Duet Series #2)

The dreamhunting began as a beautiful thing, when Tziga Hame discovered that he could enter the Place and share the dreams he found there with other people. But Tziga Hame has disappeared and Laura, his daughter, knows that the art of projecting dreams has turned sour.

On St. Lazarus's Eve, when elite citizens gather at the Rainbow Opera to experience the sweet

Overview

The dreamhunting began as a beautiful thing, when Tziga Hame discovered that he could enter the Place and share the dreams he found there with other people. But Tziga Hame has disappeared and Laura, his daughter, knows that the art of projecting dreams has turned sour.

On St. Lazarus's Eve, when elite citizens gather at the Rainbow Opera to experience the sweet dream of Homecoming, Laura, determined to show them the truth, plunges them into the nightmare used to control the convict workers. The event marks the first blow in the battle for control of the Place, the source of dreams. Then, when Laura's cousin, Rose, uncovers evidence that the government has been building a secret rail line deep into the Place, Laura follows it to find out what lies at its end. As she struggles to counter the government's sinister plans, a deeper mystery surfaces, a puzzle only Laura can unravel, a puzzle having to do with the very nature of the Place. What is the Place, after all? And what does it want from her?

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

“It is like nothing else I've ever read. The characters are so real, you'll feel like you know exactly what they look like and how their voices sound and what they would say or do in any given situation. More than that, you'll want to hang out with them. Then the world is so amazing and unique. You will want to go there. You will want to walk into ‘the Place.' And you will want to sleep in a dream opera.” Stephenie Meyer, The Twilight Saga

“Will be considered among youth fantasy's most significant recent works. Knox's haunting, invigorating storytelling will leave readers eager to return to its puzzles--and to reap its rewards.” Booklist, Starred Review

“Thoroughly impressive--for its sure, literary prose, nuanced characters, and fully realized Edwardian setting, but even more so for its original, surprising imagery and plot. An involving--and challenging--read, Knox's fantasy is outstanding in its ability to make us think both poetically and analytically about human nature.” The Horn Book

“Legendary allusions add depth and light.” Kirkus Reviews

“Compelling.” Voice of Youth Advocates

“Richly layered and thoroughly enthralling, Knox's literary duet is a unique blend of fantasy and history that stands out as a stunning achievement in recent young adult literature.” School Library Journal

“It's a story of hope and love. It's a fantasy yet is very realistic. This is one I will read over and over again.” A YALSA YA Galley Teen Reader

KLIATT - Michele Winship

The second book of the Dreamhunter Duet begins on St. Lazarus Eve in 1906 as a crowd of over 1,000 has come to the Rainbow Opera to share the beautiful dream Homecoming performed by the famous dreamhunter Grace Tiebold. However, as the crowd drifts off, they find themselves not in the peaceful setting of Homecoming, but buried alive and trying to claw their way out of a coffin. Laura Hame has overdreamed her talented aunt in an effort to sound the alarm about how the government Body is using nightmares to torture inmates. However, a more sinister plan is underwaydreamhunters are disappearing, a railway and depot have been built far within the Place, and cryptic messages hint at a violent uprising. Laura realizes that not only must she get to the bottom of the Body's plan, but she must discover the true essence of the Place, what it really is and what purpose it serves. This is Laura's coming-of-age story, not only as a dreamhunter, but also as a young woman. She struggles with the first stirrings of romantic love, attempting to piece together two suitors from two different worlds. Knox's skill at imagining parallel planes of existence is evident throughout both volumes, but it's not until the end of the story that readers really experience the complexity of her construction, which will bring them to question their own interpretations of here and now.

VOYA - Laura Woodruff

Sequel to Dreamhunter (Frances Foster Books/Farrar Straus Giroux, 2006/VOYA February 2006), this book continues the adventures of cousins Laura and Rose and their families in early-twentieth-century Southland, a community that harbors "The Place," an invisible source of dreams. Laura, misguidedly following directions that she believes were left by her deceased father, sleeps later than her aunt Grace and delivers a "buried alive" nightmare to customers at the Rainbow Opera. Her perplexed relatives hide Laura, but their efforts at protection, as well as conspirators' attempts at capture, are consistently thwarted by Laura's use of golem Nown, a sand creature that she created in the first book. Amid many twists and turns, Laura and her family battle an Orwellian plot to manipulate Southland's citizens using dream control, a scheme contrived by influential Secretary of Interior Cas Doran, Rose's best friend's father. Along the way, Rose and Laura attend a debutante "coming-out" party ended by a violent fire that nearly kills Rose and turns Nown from sand to glass; Laura falls in love and becomes pregnant by fellow dreamhunter Sandy; and the mystery of "The Place" is solved through the resurrection of ancestor Lazarus Hame. Despite a slow start, this sequel, enhanced by action and romance, is more compelling than the first book. Still laden with Knox's impassioned detail, it will certainly attract young fans of Dreamhunter, as well other readers of the select fantasy group.

Children's Literature - Kathleen Foucart

In the second book of the "Dreamhunter Duet" Laura Hame is carrying a nightmare. Believing she is acting on her father's last wishes, she over-dreams her Aunt Grace at the Rainbow Opera, a dream palace where people can share in the dreams caught by Grace Tiebold, and shares the nightmare Buried Alive, throwing some of the most important people in Founderston into terror. Laura believed it was her father's wish to let the world see the dreams used to keep prison laborers in line. But when she learns her father is actually alive, she and her family, with the help of her sandman servant Nown and beau Sandy, begin to plan how to bring about changes in the ways in which dreams are used. But when Laura makes a stunning discovery about the true nature of The Place where dreams are caught, she also makes a discovery about herself and her future that shakes her to her core. While a beautifully written and moving work, Dreamquake does not necessarily stand well on its own and should be read following a reading of Dreamhunter. This will allow readers to fully enter the creative and memorable world that Knox has created for her characters and to appreciate the people they become throughout the course of this book.

School Library Journal

Gr 9 UpThis title begins where Dreamhunter (Farrar, 2006) left off, and is written in the same detailed, eloquent prose. Dreamhunter Laura Hame has just inflicted the sleeping patrons at the Rainbow Opera dream palace with a nightmare that blows a government conspiracy wide open. Now everyone knows about the sickening, horrific dreams used by Cas Doran and his Regulatory Body to control prison convicts. But mysteries remain about the origins of The Place, the invisible geographic area a rare dreamhunter is able to enter for the purpose of acquiring dreams, and Doran's secret railroad being built there. As Laura and her family attempt to uncover secrets and bring Doran to justice, they deal with internal divisions about the right course of action to take. Passions run deep between these complicated characters, and Knox beautifully portrays a family dynamic infused with genuine affection. Laura's tender relationship with her Sandman, a creature she created, is further developed and becomes an integral piece in the puzzle of The Place. The reality that is ultimately revealed catches readers by surprise yet manages to tie all loose ends together in an emotionally satisfying way. Richly layered and thoroughly enthralling, Knox's literary duet is a unique blend of fantasy and history that stands out as a stunning achievement in recent young adult literature.Emily RodriguezCopyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

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Read an Excerpt

The stand of trees Laura had picked as a landmark was getting closer, but only very slowly. She sighed and picked up her pace. She was hungry, but that was no excuse for dragging her feet and daydreaming.

A while later, when she’d raised a sweat and her mind was just idling, the thought that had been trailing her for days – possibly since Rose first told her about the “surplus rails” – finally caught up with her. She remembered that the Grand Patriarch had asked her about the “Depot.”

Laura raised her head and squinted up the line. The “Depot” wasn’t the name of a dream – it was a destination, where something was stored.

What else had the Grand Patriarch said? There was something else, a name from a rumor, because hadn’t the Grand Patriarch said that most of his intelligence came from rumors?

Contentment.

Laura stopped walking when the word came into her head. She stood still, shivering and short of breath. The world darkened around her as her pupils contracted. Dread had crept up and pounced on her. And, now that she was still, she understood that her footsteps had masked a vibration.

A steely rolling was coming from the line behind her.

Laura spun to face back along the line. She saw the handcar bearing down upon her, fast. Riding on it were six rangers.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

There is a lot I want to say about this book, but first I have to say a bit about how the duet actually works. Some readers feel strongly, and fairly, that the Duet cannot be read in isolation (that is the two books cannot stand alone). Other readers, also fairly, feel that the books can and do work well as individual pieces of prose. I actually agree with both viewpoints.
Just a bit about the basic plot of Dreamhunter: I'm not all that familiar with New Zealand but a review from the New Zealand Listener tells me that Knox's novels are set in "something like the New Zealand of a century ago, but with a twist, in that social life revolves around a traffic in dreams." The rare people who can catch dreams (dreamhunters) perform them for the social elite at dream palaces like the Rainbow Opera. Dreams are also often used for the public good in hospitals around Southland.
Some dreamhunters also capture nightmares which readers learn in Dreamhunter are used for the public good, but in a much more sinister way. Laura, our protagonist, discovers this fact when she begins investigating the disappearance of her father, one of the greatest dreamhunters Southland has ever seen. Outraged by what she has seen, Laura sets out to inform the public of the governments use of nightmares. Dreamhunter ends with the disastrous results of this attempt.
It is therefore no surprise that Dreamquake opens with the chaos following the execution of Laura's plan as Southland and Laura's family are thrown into a state of disarray. Adrift with only her creation Nown and a nightmare, Laura has to find a way to earn back her family's trust while negotiating an entanglement with a fellow young dreamhunter. All this while continuing to investigate the corruption of the sinister Dream Regulatory Body created to control the Place and its invaluable resources.
Dreamquake is every bit as good as Dreamhunter while also being even better because it expands on characters who don't get as much time to shine in the first novel. Sandy and Rose (and to some extent Nown) are back and much more engaged in the central plot than they were in Dreamhunter to great effect.
Knox's prose is unique in that it is well-paced while also being high action. Knox takes her time to explain terms like "Soporif" and "Novelists" but never to the detriment of the story. The action here is so intense and gripping that, at several points in the novel, I found myself skimming ahead just to make sure that everything would turn out all right in the end.
The Dreamhunter Duet is a rare thing in contemporary literature. Both books are rich enough that, were the main characters not teenagers, no one would question its place as an adult book-but I've made that argument about other books on this site. More to the point, Knox is an amazing writer. Dreamhunter and Dreamquake are populated by a wide variety of characters, each unique and fully realized on the page.
Instead of creating a world and characters and even this story, it feels instead like Knox is introducing readers to old friends, reciting a familiar tale-everything within these novels seems so real, the details are so concrete, that it feels like folly to consider it fantastic or even fiction. And that is why Dreamquake (and Dreamhunter) will surely take their rightful places among the canon of great fantasy novels.

Anonymous

More than 1 year ago

This book, and its companion, DreamHunter, impressesd me so thoroughly that, after reading them at the library 3 times, I went and bought them. Fantasy books are some times too far fetched to be taken litererally, but not this book! It had just enpugh a dose of reality in it to keep me interested and was still sonout of the norm that I found mysrlf entranced by this new forgin world. Amazing writing in both books. Well done! I must say it was a bit slow to start, but if you keep with it you won't be dissapointed. :) sory for the spelling errors, the screen is messd up.

Guest

More than 1 year ago

Fantasy isn¿t my favorite genre. Few authors master it in ways that make it interesting to book snobs. Notable exceptions would be Marion Bradley Zimmer¿s Mists of Avalon or the inimitable J. K. Rowling with Harry Potter. This book isn¿t on par with either of these luminaries, but it is a passably good effort. Blending historical fiction with fantasy, this story is about a group of individuals (Dream Hunters) who are able to capture and share dreams. When a nightmare is shared at one of the of dream performances, an investigation ensues. Laura Hame, sixteen year old protagonist, is surrounded by a cast of interesting characters, mainly family. As Laura begins to discover the insidious plot to take over her country through the use of Contentment, a dream that keeps people insensibly happy, she also uncovers the abuses of convicts whose labor is being used to develop the infrastructure of the country. The villain is a government official who also happens to be friends with Laura¿s family. The characters (including a sandman¿apros pos for a story about sleeping) and setting are developed sufficiently to please fantasy lovers. The dust jacket declares this story is the second of a duet, but the ending is ambiguous enough that, if the book is popular, the author can easily add sequels or prequels. Ms. Knox¿s first book received a great deal of acclaim (if the reviews on the dust jacket are to be believed) for her first book in this series, and while this book does not deserve scorn, its plot is predictably ¿and they lived happily ever after.¿ It¿s low level of profanity and sexual content make it conservatively appropriate and a good enough read. To her credit, Ms. Knox provides us with a sequel that can stand on its own or be enjoyed as a set with its predecessor, Dreamhunter.

Guest

More than 1 year ago

A variety of striking physical landscapes, a vividly evoked Edwardian society, and the startlingly original concept of dreamhunting draw the reader into a world like our own but different. Laura is fighting against society and the powers that be and trying to create a better future for herself and her world

Cecily_Templeton

More than 1 year ago

It all comes together in this beautifully-created fantasy world. I was captivated to the last page!

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Jasmyn9

More than 1 year ago

I read the first book in the Dreamhunter duet as part of the Most Underappreciated Book Contest earlier this year. It intrigued me enough that I went out and got the second. However, about half way through I almost put the book down. The characters seemed to be stuck in a loop trying to figure the same things out over and over again.
Things were just taking too long for me, but I stuck through it and the second half of the book made up it. The characters started to develop again and the plot become involved and was progressing once again.
Laura Hame is once again center stage of the story, and she has finally started to put things together about the mysterious Place. The pieces eventually fell together quite nicely and the story ended well.
3/5

cdotson

More than 1 year ago

I was really disappointed with Dreamhunter...but I kept reading it and decided to buy Dreamquake thinking it would be better...I got halfway through and couldn't finish. I thought they were going to be good reads! I was wrong...